The invention relates to a larynx tube and a method for the production thereof.
Acting as supraglottal respiratory tracts, larynx tubes have become established in recent years as indispensable means for temporarily protecting the airway and are used both for spontaneous respiration and positive pressure ventilation.
Larynx tubes which are commercially available have a tube shaft having a ventilation lumen. There is arranged on the tube shaft an inflatable oesophageal cuff, that is to say, an inflatable blocking collar for blocking the oesophagus, and a pharyngeal cuff for blocking the pharynx. A ventilation opening of the ventilation lumen is arranged between the two cuffs.
In order to protect the airway, the larynx tube is introduced from the mouth into the pharynx until a ventilation opening of the tube shaft comes to rest upstream of the entrance to the larynx of the person to be ventilated. The two cuffs are subsequently inflated so that sealing of the oesophagus is provided by the distal oesophageal cuff and sealing of the mouth/pharyngeal space is provided by the proximally arranged pharyngeal cuff.
In order to relieve the stomach, that is to say, to drain the stomach contents, the larynx tubes occasionally have an additional drainage channel which is constructed in the tube shaft and which has a drainage opening which is arranged distally in respect of the oesophageal cuff. Such a drainage channel allows drainage of the stomach contents and pressure relief of the stomach. It is thereby possible to counteract both any risk of aspiration and danger of injury (rupture) of the oesophagus associated with vomiting.
However, with commercially available larynx tubes, the drainage channel narrows the ventilation lumen in such a manner that medical instruments or auxiliary means, such as bronchoscopes, can pass the ventilation lumen only with difficulty or not at all.
An object of the invention is to provide a larynx tube, whose ventilation lumen is narrowed to a lesser extent by the drainage channel, whilst retaining the functionality of the larynx tube, so that medical instruments and auxiliary means, such as, for example, a bronchoscope or a suction catheter, can pass the ventilation lumen in a simplified manner. An object of the invention is further to set out a method for producing such a larynx tube.